IT names 24 defaulters owing Rs.490 crore taxes

The Income-Tax Department on Thursday released an all-India list of 24 defaulters who owe nearly Rs.490 crore in taxes to the exchequer but have either reported inadequate assets for payment of dues or gone untraceable.

The I-T department issued an advertisement in leading national dailies titled 'List of defaulters of Income Tax and Corporate Tax’. The defaulters list included names of individuals and companies.

The notice, issued by a nodal office of the Principal Director General of Income Tax in Delhi, advised the defaulters to pay their tax arrears immediately

The public announcement carries the identity of the firm or the individual, the name of their directors and partners, the date of incorporation of the company (date of birth in case of individuals), their Permanent Account Number (PAN) or the Tax Deduction Account Number (TAN), their last known address and business profile, the amount of tax defaulted, assessment year and the respective jurisdictional I-T authority

The defaulting firms were in sectors like food processing, bullion trading, software, real estate, breweries and manufacture of ingots among others

The maximum tax dues of over Rs 86.27 crore is placed against a Delhi-based company named Ms Stock Guru, India and its partner Lokeshwar Dev. The assessee, however, has gone untraceable and has inadequate assets to pay the income tax, according to the notice. The I-T dues for this firm are for the assessment years (AYs) 2009-10 and 2010-11.

Some of the defaulters have not paid taxes for the assessment year 1989-90.

The total tax default amount by 24 entities, from cities like Ahmedabad, Guwahati, Vijaywada, Nashik, Surat, Delhi, Vadodara, Kolkata and others, is about Rs.490 crore.

A senior I-T Department official said the public list is aimed to make people aware so that they can help the department in nabbing these defaulters, if they have any information about them

The notice also carried a disclaimer that the "entries in the list are specific to the tax arrears/assessment year mentioned and the tax defaulter's address, business, shareholding and management may have changed" now

The amount of default "shall further increase" after due interest is levied on it, the notice states.

A few years ago, the Central Board of Direct Taxes had adopted the strategy of bringing out the names of chronic defaulters in public domain. Since then it had also begun posting these names on its official website.

(With inputs from agencies)